CAS3 Staff Officer Guide - U.S. Army

9.4 Fact Sheet
© 2005 CAS3 For Instructional Purposes Only
Compiled by www.ArmyToolbag.com
I. M. HIGHPOWER
COL, GS
Chief of Staff
Correspondence 86
a. Use. Fact sheets are not correspondence subject to the format guidelines of AR 25-50. Fact
sheets provide a bulletized summary of facts concerning an issue, action, or conference. A fact sheet
(facts only) provides only facts; should the facts lead to a conclusion, use the fact sheet (interpreted
facts) format. Use a fact sheet when the reader knows the background of the subject; otherwise, use
an information paper.
b. General format. Rarely should the fact sheet exceed one page in length. The top, bottom, and
right margins are 1-inch margins. The left margin is 1.25 inches to allow for hole punching. Use the
standard Times New Roman 12 font and, unless otherwise noted, left justify.
c. Header information. Using right justification, type the proponent office symbol on the top
line; type the date one line below the office symbol. Type Fact Sheet (bold and underlined),
centered, two lines below the date.
d. Subject. Type SUBJECT: (all caps with colon), left justified, two lines below Fact Sheet,
followed by a short subject title. Capitalize the first letter of the key words in the title.
e. First paragraph, Purpose (underlined). Do not number the paragraphs. In one concise
statement, state the reason for preparing the document in the infinitive form (e.g., “To . . .”).
f. Second paragraph, Discussion (underlined). Use bullet statements to outline discussion
points. Keep the text in this paragraph short, to the point, and easy to read.
· Use the bullet format to highlight major points. The bullet is at the left margin.
- Use dashes as subbullets to add supporting information. Use the tab to indent the subbullet.
ü Present further details, though rare, with checkmarks. Tab again to indent further.
· Do not override the AutoFormat function for the paragraph. Allow the second line of the
paragraph to return to the start of the bulletized statement (or “hang” by the tab-setting amount).
g. Second and following page format. Should the fact sheet exceed one page, type both the
header and page number the same way as for subsequent pages of a memorandum.
h. Coordination. Left justify the coordination in the fact sheet’s lower left corner. Type Coord:
on the second line below the last line of the discussion paragraph. On the subsequent lines, type the
rank, last name, and office symbol of any activity or activities with whom the action officer
coordinated.
i. Point of contact (POC) and approval authority. Type the action officer’s rank and last name,